Perarivalan’s mother meets Governor, seeks son’s release

Arputham Ammal, mother of A G Perarivalan, one of the seven life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, today met Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and urged him to release her son, who was languishing in jail for the last 27 years.

Speaking to reporters later, she expressed hope that the Governor would take a positive decision on the release of Perarivalan and six others.

She said: “The Governor took a lot of interest in our petition, and even pointed out an error we rectified then and there.”

“We are confident that the Governor will take a positive decision as regards the release of Arivu (Perarivalan), and others,” she added.

Among other records, Arputhammal had given a Compact Disk containing submissions of former interrogator V Thiagarajan. Thiagarajan in an affidavit to the Supreme Court last year, had said the CBI had omitted parts of Perarivalan’s confessional statement to prove he had little knowledge of the plot.

Recently, a Supreme Court bench said the Governor would be at liberty to decide Perarivalan’s release under constitutional provision empowering the Governor to pardon convicts as he deems fit.

Following this, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet passed a resolution in favour of the release of the seven and forwarded it to the Governor.

As reports in the media said the Governor has sent the files regarding the State Cabinet resolution to the Centre, the Raj Bhavan had on September 15 denied the reports and said a just and fair decision would be taken in accordance with the Constitution.